The Neo9 series has now emerged to confirm their well-hyped impression of being the 'gaming' versions of Vivo's X100 smartphones. Then again, iQOO has cut some low-key yet undeniably puzzling corners with its latest smartphones: for example, the Pro variant's RAM is LPDDR5X rather than the newer LPDDR5T standard touted to go better with its cutting-edge Dimensity 9300 processor.
The same is true of the new smartphone's vanilla sibling, although it has the last-gen Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 SoC in true iQOO Neo fashion. Then again, both the 9 and 9 Pro might have the edge over any current X100 variant - and maybe even the upcoming OPPO Find X7 - with new BOE 8T panels of 6.78 inches in diagonal length and 1.5K in resolution, which are of course also jacked up to 144Hz.
The new OLED displays are also augmented with "6K Canopy" vapor chamber-based cooling and the same Q1 co-processor as the flagship 12 series, moreover. Finally, the Neo9 series has also taken the X100's new Sony IMX920 main camera for itself, backed up by a second 50MP shooter in the Pro and an 8MP wide-angle lens in the vanilla Neo9.
Finally, both new handsets upgrade to a new 5,160mAh battery - with the iQOO 12's 120W charging technology to boot. The have been made available in all 3 new signature colorways, starting at 2,299 yuan (~$350) for a base-model Neo9 with 12GB of RAM and 256GB of internal storage, going not all that far up to 3,999 yuan (~$560) for a 16GB/1TB top-end 9 Pro SKU.
They and all the options in between can be pre-ordered in China only for now, leaving us in hopes of a global release to follow.
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